Britney Kirwan

A relationship you cannot seem to escape.

By Britney Kirwan

How old were you when your parents first allowed you to be on social media? If you’re a college student in 2023, my guess is that you’ve had it from a pretty young age. By that I mean middle school and for some, even before that. It’s hard to think that there was a time for us when we weren’t concerned about checking our phones every five minutes to see what people were up to or, if someone left us on “read.”. None of us could have fathomed the way social media would affect all of our lives—especially as college students— when we first made our Instagram accounts at 12-years-old. It’s even harder to fathom what it could be like down the road. We’ve been glued to our phones during our most pivotal years of development, and it’s safe to say it has caused drawbacks that generations before us didn’t have to experience.

I’ve had social media since I was in 5th grade. I am 22 years old now, so that means it has been a part of my life for over a decade now. I had Snapchat before it came out with stories, I was posting on Instagram with a Valencia filter, and I was never not on Vine. As a kid, it seemed to be so fun to connect with friends online, but now I definitely suffer the consequences. The consequences I’m referring to are more mental health related, although not to say social media can’t affect other aspects of someone’s health. 

According to psychotherapist, Rachel Holzberg, LMSW from Manhattan Wellness, acknowledges the correlation between usage of social media and mental health. 

“Various studies have demonstrated that higher usage of social media has a strong correlation to mental conditions such as anxiety and depressive symptoms, as well as having an effect on body image concerns and disordered eating.” Holzerg said. “In the age of social media, people are prone to comparison which is directly correlated to low self-esteem so it’s essential to be mindful and check in with one’s health.”

As most college students may relate to, these four years feel like nothing but comparison. From comparing grades, to internships, to social life, social media only increases the pressure for us. Social media also is not something we can simply just go off of and put down as it now has become a fueling part of not only our generation, but of our society. So, how do we find a healthy balance?

Holzberg says, “we have to have a better understanding if the use of social media is getting in the way of studying, engaging with friends and/or distracting from other interests. Many people can become so consumed with looking down at the phone that they rarely are looking up and being engaged and present in the real world.”

This has definitely been a personal struggle for me. It is not so much screen time that I have had issues with, it is moreso the intent of why I am using social media. This was not an easy thing for me to figure out for myself, as I forced myself to go on a personal cleanse to find more introspection on my relationship with social media. My goal was 30 day, and did I reach that goal? Absolutely not! I managed about a week before I began scrolling through TikTok, but that’s okay because I figured out what I needed to figure out in a week rather than a month. 

From my experience, I had the most trouble staying away from TikTok and Instagram, and the least amount of trouble with SnapChat -which I fully don’t use now-and VSCO. I realized just how easy it was to escape reality when using TikTok and how easy was to find validation when using Instagram, which is where I personally have the most issues when it comes to  social media. 

I am certainly not a doctor or any kind of psycho-therapist, but I do have to say that I think anyone can benefit from either a social media cleanse or from taking the time to figure out one’s own relationship with it. I say this because with the world we live in now, a lot of us may have to use these platforms in our full-time jobs when we graduate, and it’s beneficial to have the tools and resources to use if it ever becomes too overwhelming. 

To speak further on how to manage social media in our careers, Rhea Srivastava, Former Digital Marketing Coordinator for ASM Global says,”If you’re doing a professional job for a company, I think understanding that that social media platform is not who you are and that it is just a job.”

This is important to take note of, however Srivistava was a full-time college student when running the social media accounts for ASM Global. Because of this I asked her more about how her job with social media affected her in college. 

Srivistava says,” I definitely think it got to a point after running an account for so long I was less worried about it, but starting off I definitely let the social media posts or social media performance affect my personal, professional performance.”

It certainly is not an overnight fix, but small changes with our mindset can certainly help , especially if this is something you are struggling with. Choosing to use social media as a way to foster connections with other people and for what we deem to be positive influences is key to a healthy relationship with social media in college. 

*Originally published for the Fall ’23 Issue of The Good Life Magazine